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Workplace stress is a universal experience that often feels like an inescapable part of the daily grind. Amid the erupting deadlines and the constant pressure to meet targets, some moments of humour are a stress-buster. This is where the Office Therapist takes the lead. With an armour of humour and the comfort of comedy, the Office Therapist has an innate ability to turn the mundane work gripping moments into a source of relief. 

While living the chaotic corporate life, it is the Office Therapist who employs humour as a strategy to remove the prevalent workplace tensions. This is not particularly about the seriousness of professional environments but rather acknowledging that laughter and the humour are the much needed therapy to keep a healthy work culture amid the frustrated employees.

Here are some specific glimpses where you can see the Office Therapist bringing a bit of laughter to evade away the negativity brought by your boss, manager, and other ‘toxic’ employees: 

Beginning of a workday with a good morning joke:

Usually, as the workday begins, pleasantries like “Good morning”, “Good Day” are exchanged amid the colleagues. But, the Office Therapist is unique, and will refresh your boring pleasantries with a well-timed joke or light-hearted comment. This small gesture sets a positive tone for the day, offering a collective sigh of relief before diving into the day’s tasks.

The ‘Comedy’ of Meetings 

Meetings, often perceived as necessary but dull, become a goldmine for the Office Therapist. Recognizing the potential for tension in these gatherings, our therapist interjects with humour at just the right moment. He/she will convey a witty comment that wraps up the challenges of forecasting or a clever observation about the everyday struggles. And, the diffusion of laughter engulfs the otherwise serious setting, fostering a more relaxed and collaborative atmosphere.

Clown at Work

Within the confines of the cubicle, when all the employees are seriously engrossed in their laptop or computer screens, the Office Therapist becomes a clown on the work desk. Armed with sticky notes and a keen sense of mischief, he/she will spill the beans of humour effortlessly with some comment or action that gives everyone a moment to laugh and admire him/her for their funny presence. Whether it’s leaving amusing messages or incorporating playful elements into the workspace, he/she aims to break the monotony and bring a smile to the faces of the colleagues. 

Words of Wisdom by the Watercooler

The watercooler, a hub for casual conversations and quick breaks, becomes a hotspot for the Office Therapist’s comedic interventions. Offering humorous remarks on the latest office gossip or sharing a light-hearted perspective on common workplace challenges, our hero transforms brief encounters into moments of shared laughter. His/her words of wisdom would act like a guide to resolve all the conflicts at work and bring in the added comfort. 

The Comedy Corner

The break room takes on a new identity as ‘The Comedy Corner’, where the Office Therapist builds a short escape from the otherwise tensed environment of deadlines and the never ending criticism of the superiors. With a few jokes and lending a pair of ears to listen to the rant of the colleagues cum friends, the office therapist gives them a safe place to vent and heal. It becomes a space where, for a few moments, the daily grind takes a backseat to the joy of shared humour.

In essence, the Office Therapist utilizes the power of laughter as a coping mechanism for the challenges of the corporate world. From the morning joke to the watercooler wisdom, the comfort of humour can go a long way in creating a more enjoyable and supportive workplace environment. After all, in the comedy of office life, a well-timed joke might just be the best medicine for the workplace blues!

Memes transcend mere humour; they’re cultural artifacts woven into the fabric of our digital society. They’re mirrors reflecting societal trends, shared experiences, and emotions in a fun and engaging way. Memes are the social glue binding generations, bridging gaps, and shaping conversations on politics, entertainment, and daily life. And similarly, they extend to the bustling world of deadlines, meetings, and coffee breaks as well!

Here are 5 ways you can exercise your meme muscles to craft hilarious and artful memes for the workplace:

1) Evoke strong emotions

Anyone who has ever held down a full time job knows how tiring it can be to work with weird
colleagues, demanding clients, impossible expectations, inadequate pay, and unreasonable
bosses. It isn’t challenging to unite masses through their mutual feelings of frustration. Make
your memes with a cocktail of such happy, bitter-sweet, and infuriating references and your
memes are sure to build a fandom!

Know more : Office Olympics – Total Quality Management & Business Reengineering

2) Make memes that your colleagues cannot help but share

The first factor that takes a meme from “meh” to “ROFL” is mass relatability. Catch trends. Jenifer Anniston is pregnant? Relate the sensational news to maternity leaves. There seems to be a writer’s strike uprising? Suggest the content team to join in. Make sure that your content is of the type that goes viral and attracts traffic, likes, and links.

3) Research, Research, Research!

Luckily, when it comes to memes, you can skip on research papers. Research for the purpose of corporate memes is literally just the constant observation of your corporate surroundings. The next time your colleagues have an ongoing beef for days, use the phenomenon as an inspiration for your memes. This also ensures that you’re being absolutely original!

Read more : It’s about time your office planned a Team Building Retreat

4) Walk the fine line between being sarcastic and rude!

One simply cannot advise a meme creator to ensure that he offends none. Memes are an artform that are always borderline rude if not downright offensive. If you cannot be wholesome with your corporate memes, just ensure that you don’t directly insult any of your coworkers. The best direction to take is to choose a common enemy as the subject/victim of your meme. For example, all your coworkers will laugh in unison at a meme about your most annoying client!

5) Make sure that your memes look professional!

Do not use fonts that are so pretty that they’re almost illegible! This is one of the most common rookie mistakes that takes extremely well thought out ideas and jokes to the grave. Luckily for you, memes are very hard to mess up. Just make sure that speech bubbles and sketches are well distanced, visible and legible and you’re good to go!

The office is one place that never runs out of subject material for memes. Observe your immediate surroundings, follow trends, and make relatable and detailed references! For inspiration, check out our memes about Project Manager Norman and his unconventional pet owl Ozi right here. And don’t forget to have fun. That’s the best part about making memes for the workplace!

In the ever-shifting office dynamics, where words are often left unspoken and feelings stew like the forgotten pot of coffee in the break room, there exists a peculiar form of communication — the humble Post-it note. These colourful, innocent-looking squares are the unsung heroes of passive- aggressive office banter, mastering the art of saying what you really mean without actually saying it. So, grab your magnifying glass and let’s delve into the fascinating world of the unspoken language of Post-it notes!

The “Friendly” Reminder:

Ah, the classic opener! “Just a friendly reminder” is the Post-it equivalent of “I told you so.” Whether it’s reminding your colleague about the overdue report or the ever-elusive refill of the printer paper, this note screams, “I’m being nice, but you’re really testing my patience.”

The “Subtle” Complaint:

“It might be nice if someone could clean the microwave after use.” Translation: “For the love of cleanliness, who nuked fish in here again? The smell is haunting my dreams.”

The “Urgent” Request:

“Could someone please restock the coffee supplies ASAP? Thanks!” This note might as well read, “The coffee situation is dire. If it’s not fixed soon, expect a riot in the break room.”

The “Casual” Observation:

“Interesting choice of music volume today.” Translation: “Turn down the music, or I will turn it down for you…permanently.”

The “Encouraging” Suggestion:

“Have you considered a different font for the office memos?” Translation: “Your font choice is so last season. Please upgrade, for the sake of our retinas.”

The “Not-So-Anonymous” Feedback:

“To whoever keeps using my desk chair without permission: Please stop.” We all know who the culprit is. They probably left this note while glaring directly at the offender.

The “Cryptic” Significance:

“Remember to water the plant.” Is the plant a metaphor? Is it dying because of neglect, or is this a passive-aggressive hint about someone’s lack of responsibility? We may never know.”

The “Overly Polite” Complaint:

“Apologies, but could someone refrain from eating smelly food at their desk? Thank you!” Translation: “Your lunch smells worse than a landfill. Please, have mercy.”

The “Bossy” Request:

“Do NOT touch! Important documents inside.” This note practically screams, “Touch it, and I will unleash a wrath you’ve never seen before.”

The “Not -So-Humble” Brag:

“Just to let you know, I’ve emptied the dishwasher for the third time this week.” Translation: “I’m basically a saint. Please acknowledge my unwavering dedication to office cleanliness.”

Remember, the art of Post-it note communication is a delicate dance. It requires finesse, a touch of wit, and a whole lot of passive-aggressiveness. While these colorful squares may seem innocent, they harbor the unspoken thoughts and frustrations of an entire office.

So, the next time you spot a cheery yellow note adorned with a smiley face, take a moment to decode its true message. And if you’re the one leaving the notes, well, remember to use your words…or maybe just consider a direct conversation. But where’s the fun in that? Keep sticking to those Post-its and keep the office drama alive, one square at a time!

Humans, no matter how underdeveloped or savage, somehow always found a way to communicate. They had to convey to their coexisting humans complicated messaging like “Do not touch my food you fool!” and “That’s my wife, you idiot!” or they wouldn’t even survive. 

Initially, they would use signs and gestures. Then they invented symbols depicting entire concepts, like Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Chinese Characters, Sumerian Cuneiform, and Mayan Glyphs. Before you know it, there was English and German and French and enough languages around the world to traumatise high school kids everywhere. 

But the most mind-boggling aspect about Human beings, however, is their current growing obsession with Emojis. History must be cyclic, after all! 

Like them or hate them, emojis are here to stay. Here are 6 ways for you to develop strong 21^st century hieroglyphic skills!

Decode the emoji alphabet

There are roughly about 2,500 to 3,000 emojis on your keypad today and that number is steadily growing. Today, you can summarise an entire film with 3 emojis. Invest a few hours on decoding and mastering the usage of every single emoji and never let an idea go unconveyed!

Save Time

It takes 4-5 characters to type a word. It takes 5-6 words to type a sentence. Who has time for that when one or two emoji characters can do the job for you? Whether it’s to make an impression on your group project chat or to stick to the character limit on twitter, don’t use too many characters when a simple 🤝 or 👍 will do.

Be Socially Conscious

Emojis representing human faces and body parts include a range of skin tone modifier options, allowing users to select from different shades. This update offers a more accurate reflection of the diverse skin tones present in the real world. We live in a day and age where Generative AI models are trained to be more culturally and socially sensitive. So be more inclusive with your content by using the colour appropriate emojis at your disposal!

Soften the blow of rude texts with the revered “Tears of Joy” emoji!

We all have that coworker who keeps forgetting to rename files before sending them. So the next time you want to remind them that they should probably repeat high school, pull back your punch with a 😂. But it is even more important to know when NOT to use this emoji. For instance, you don’t want your employees to think you’re just kidding around when you’re firing them.

Get popular on LinkedIn. REAL popular.

A few emojis amidst your accolades and achievements can really make your profile stand out. Want that article on “Business Strategies for Taming Unicorns” to trend? Add some unicorn 🦄 emojis to your post and check out the engagement you’re about to receive.

Beware of emoji overload!

Remember, when it comes to emojis, moderation is key; a sprinkle adds flavour, but a downpour might drown your message and derail the conversation.

Language evolves faster than fashion, and emojis lead this linguistic revolution. Embrace their evolution; new emojis pop up faster than daisies in spring. Stay updated and ride the wave of emoji innovation!

Quality is the buzzword that seems to stir the bone marrow of the entrepreneurs and the C-suite employees and excite them to the core. Total Quality Management (TQM) is another jargon that came of late that tells you to maintain quality in everything you do. It takes into account the incompleteness and imperfections of the homo sapiens and advocates improvements in everything you do every time. It tells you what you do today should be better in quality than what you did yesterday. Like this, you improve every day till you become all perfect and attain emancipation. Before you emancipate there is a good chance that the organization can also emancipate

That is where the catch-22 lies: you should help the company emancipate before you do. That is all about quality and the Total Quality movement. A banana is hung before the employees saying that if you practice TQM and the daily doses of improvements, you will see the quality of your personal life also improving to a noticeable degree. This is an intangible extra perquisite that an employee can expect apart from his or her salary. They start thinking that this can be the last instrument that can change their spouse for the better. It is this optimism that is injected into the bunch of idiots in an attempt to make them practically intelligent.

Here is a glimpse of practical intelligence in action.   

Innovate for Excellence

In this organization-wide movement of improving quality another important word is innovation. You should innovate in everything that you do. Innovation is the key. Employees are told that winners don’t do new things, they do the same thing in different ways. It simply means adding porridge and cheese to the sandwich that you stuffed with vegetables earlier to make it tasty. But management is generally against such generous approaches of innovation where costs increase. They advocate innovation without an increase in costs. It is like dipping in the water without making your hair wet. When asked, they nonchalantly reply everything is possible and some companies hang such reminders of impossibility on the front doors that say, “Everything is Possible”. The intention is to remind the employee that they are entering the impossible zone, and it is their duty to turn the impossible into possibility. 

Here are some innovations that challenge the normal practices.

For the simple reason of turning impossibility into possibility, a tool is provided to the employees and massive training sessions are conducted to make them understand the value of business reengineering. This is an intangible tool to turn utopian ideas into reality. At the end of the training, the employees feel more perplexed than excited. There is often a guide to take them through the whole ordeal. Their signs of progress are measured by an external consultant.

Here is the external consultant at work.

If you wonder what we are talking about, it is in simple words reengineering everything that we do for better results. To make it even simpler, you don’t go for a haircut, but you reengineer your head. You no longer go for a meager lunch, but you re-engineer your stomach or the intestine for uncountable reasons obviously positive and long-standing. In this attempt to reengineer everything with innovation for unknown reasons, there is full chaos in the whole system. The reason for this chaos is we are all schizophrenic, but we distinguish our idiosyncrasies and keep them under control when we interact with hard reality. TQM seems to break this barrier and asserts that it is this schizophrenia that can change the world.

Office Olympics – Total Quality Management & Business Reengineering

When over enthusiastic employees apply innovation for better results!

Sotto Voce

In most cases companies find it highly tedious and tiring to translate idiosyncrasies on an aggregate scale into productivity. Slowly the TQM tides down and normal activities start taking their place for practical reasons. The C-suite employees and the entrepreneurs understand after paying the price that too much innovation and reengineering are not easy to digest and yield results. They ultimately realize that quality and innovation cannot be a slave driving affair. So eventually these drives of innovation and reengineering ebbs down and succumbs to the dreary desert sand of dead habits. 

We know you are waiting for us to point out another corporate absurdity that you are also subjected to. We also know you have no other way but to accept it. But remember, you are not alone. Norman & Ozi and their whole bunch of colleagues are also with you to make your life easier and bring a grin to your faces at the end of the day.

Subscribe to our daily doses of office humor to keep smiling. If you are not the type who objects to laughter, we will be sending you regular doses of laughter through our newsletters. Don’t feel stressed, keep laughing! Have a look at our business comic strips and peep into our newsletter and find innovative ways of looking at things to make your day better! See Ya!